For some time the use of solid-state ballasts or electronic generators has rapidly expanded as a result of various advantages such as energy savings, instantaneous starting, suppression of the stroboscopic effect which can cause eye damage, reduction or elimination of ballast hum, direct current applications, etc. All these advantages and more are inherent in electronic generator ballasts as opposed to the conventional electrical alternating current ballasts.
However, the majority of present pulse generators, as a result of their circuit configuration, produce voltage peaks which are detrimental to lamp filaments. They also fail to develop sufficient output to operate gas discharge lamps above 40 W, since many of these pulse circuits incorporate only a single transistor in their output circuits.